Paul Wormeli Recipient of IJIS Institute Robert P. Shumate Award

Date: 2016-02-08

Institute honors justice and public safety leader for life time achievements in technology innovation

The IJIS Institute - a nonprofit organization that focuses on mission-critical information sharing and safeguarding for justice, public safety, and homeland security - is pleased to announce Paul Wormeli (pictured, below right), as the recipient of the 2016 Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award, which was presented by the namesake of the award, Robert Shumate, on January 20, 2016, at the annual IJIS Institute Badge & Tech Benefit & Awards Dinner in Arlington, Virginia.

In his more than four decades of dedicated service to the public safety and justice community, Wormeli has made numerous contributions. From his appointment as the National Project Manager for SEARCH, the consortium of states engaged in applying advanced technology to justice and public safety, to his more recent work on the National Academies of Sciences for the Committee on Law and Justice and the Panel to Modernize Crime Statistics.

During remarks honoring Mr. Wormeli, Robert Shumate, Member Emeritus of the IJIS Institute, said, “Paul has sparked innovation and interest in new approaches to solving information sharing problems in the justice and public safety community. He has been an ever-present and persistent force that brought industry and government together to work on solving many of their common technology problems.”

Patrick McCreary, Associate Deputy Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Department of Justice, lauded Wormeli for his early work in helping spearhead the development of the Industry Working Group which was the initial steps for continued collaboration between industry and government to improve information sharing in justice and public safety. Subsequently, Wormeli was involved in the formation of the IJIS Institute in 2002, and eventually served as its Executive Director from 2003 to 2011.

In addition to Wormeli’s many accomplishments, he served under Presidential appointment and Senate confirmation as the Deputy Administrator of the Law Enforcement Administration in the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on a variety of committees that have positively impacted justice and public safety. They include the President’s Drug Enforcement Committee, the President’s Commission on Standards and Goals for Criminal Justice, the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Communications and Outreach Committee which he chaired, and the National Association of State CIO’s (NASCIO) Enterprise Architecture Committee.

More recently, he helped create a graduate course in Information Management for Justice and Public Safety and was appointed as lecturer for George Washington University (GWU) for that course. He has published extensively, with more than 50 scholarly papers to his credit, and has presented hundreds of lectures at professional meetings and prestigious groups, nationally and internationally furthering the cause of justice and public safety.

For more information on the Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award, see: www.ijis.org/?page=Awards